The representation of dynamic facial expressions in the monkey frontal lobe
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1
KU Leuven, Laboratorium voor Neuro- en Psychofysiologie, Belgium
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2
Harvard Med. Sch., Massachusetts Gen. Hospital, United States
It has been proposed that facial expressions, whose neural representations overlap with well-known language regions such as Broca’s area in the human brain, are a candidate for speech precursors (Rizzolatti & Craighero, 2004; Nishitani et al., 2005). In this study we tested which prefrontal areas in the monkey brain are involved in the perception of facial expressions. In an event-related fMRI experiment (3T, contrast enhanced, 1.25 mm isotropic resolution), we presented four types of dynamic facial expressions (aggression, A; fear, F; lip smacking, L; and chewing, C), and their spatio-temporal scrambled versions (mosaic-scrambled, with the same, but temporally scrambled, motion vectors of the original movies) to 3 fixating monkeys (2 s long movie clips, 3.5 – 4.5 s ISI). We found that observation of facial expressions, compared to their scrambled counterparts, activated several regions in bilateral ventral premotor and prefrontal cortex. These included area 44 in the depth of the fundus of the lower arcuate sulcus, in addition to parts of premotor area F5a, prefrontal area FEF and area 45B. The fMRI response profiles of these regions showed that only the communicative (A, F and L), and not the non-communicative (C) facial expressions evoked significant activations in these regions (compared to their corresponding scrambled versions). Furthermore, compared to a neutral chewing facial display, observation of facial displays portraying aggression yielded a significant higher response in right F5a and FEF (A/C x configuration, p < 0.05). Finally, two sectors of the orbital frontal cortex (OFC) responded differently (Regions x Communicative expressions x Configuration, p < 0.01) to the presentation of the facial expressions, with the lateral OFC displaying a similar fMRI response profile as the premotor regions, whereas the ventral OFC responded significantly higher to lip smacking (compared to aggression), which is consistent with the role of the ventral OFC in the representation of reward-related stimuli (O'Doherty et al., 2001). In conclusion, the results of this fMRI study show that macaque area 44, monkeys' presumable precursor of Broca, along with other premotor and frontal areas, plays a role in the representation of the facial expressions of other conspecifics, especially those conveying a communicative message.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank C. Fransen, C. Van Eupen and A. Coeman for animal training and care; P. De Mazière, H. Kolster, W. Depuydt, G. Meulemans, P. Kayenbergh, M. De Paep, S. Verstraeten, M. Docx, and I. Puttemans for technical assistance and G. Luppino for delineating the frontal areas.
This work was financially supported by FWO-Vlaanderen, IUAP, PF, R21 and GOA.
References
Rizzolatti, G., et al., Annu Rev Neurosci, 27: p. 169 (2004).
Nishitani, N., et al., Physiology, 20: p. 60-69 (2005).
O'Doherty, J., et al., Nat Neurosci, 4(1): p. 95-102 (2001).
Keywords:
Facial Expression,
Frontal Lobe,
Primate,
fMRI,
Area 44
Conference:
Belgian Brain Council, Liège, Belgium, 27 Oct - 27 Oct, 2012.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Higher Brain Functions in health and disease: cognition and memory
Citation:
Zhu
Q,
Nelissen
K,
Orban
GA and
Vanduffel
W
(2012). The representation of dynamic facial expressions in the monkey frontal lobe.
Conference Abstract:
Belgian Brain Council.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2012.210.00003
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Received:
10 Sep 2012;
Published Online:
12 Sep 2012.
*
Correspondence:
Prof. Wim Vanduffel, KU Leuven, Laboratorium voor Neuro- en Psychofysiologie, Leuven, Belgium, wim.vanduffel@med.kuleuven.be